Conventional shopping carts typically include restraining straps which encircle the waist of an infant or small child seated therein. These restraining straps are often insufficient to properly hold the infant in an upright position. An infant aged four months to a year old typically does not have enough balancing skills to remain sitting upright for a long duration of time. Thus, the infant will have a tendency to slide down in the seat or to lean sideways due to the lack of lateral support provided by such restraining straps or will fall forward due to the low position of the straps. Further, shopping carts typically have hard seats which may cause discomfort for the infant especially due to the large upwardly protruding wires of the basket type child seat. Accordingly, an infant not well supported tends to become restless and irritable. Additionally, an infant in such a shopping cart may try to free himself, potentially causing serious injury. It is a well documented fact that a large number of children fall from shopping carts each year. Supermarkets and department stores offer a few shopping carts with infant seats permanently mounted therein. However, these seats are usually unable to restrain the infant in an upright position. Presently available restraining apparati typically consist of waist and shoulder straps which hold the infant upright. One considerable drawback of devices of this type is that the infant's freedom of movement is too restricted. Further, the straps are not padded, thus adding to the infant's discomfort.
Other existing devices were invented to increase an infant's comfort while seated in a shopping cart or high chair. One such device covers the handle and seat of a shopping cart with padded fabric. One drawback to such devices is that the infant is not supported. The degree of support provided by such apparati is minimal since they are constructed of soft pliable materials with no straps available to restrain the infant.
Clearly, there is a need for a device that may be used with shopping carts while providing support to the infant so that he is retained in an upright position while still being able to move his upper body. Such a needed device would provide the infant lateral support while maintaining comfort. Further, in such a device the infant would remain occupied when given the ability to move his head and arms freely. Such a device would additionally be lightweight, flexible, strong, have padding to insulate the child from the protruding wires of a shopping cart child seat and would be able to fit into a cart child seat using the seat as support while providing the necessary padding. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.